Building in Berkeley will house homeless youth

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Christina Cross, 24, shows off her new Berkeley apartment on Tuesday Oct. 18, 2011, in a building built exclusively for homeless youth. Cross is one of 15 residents who will receive subsidized rents and counseling for issues such as mental health, education, employment and finances. The building received about 200 applications for 15 studio apartments. (Doug Oakley/Staff)

Christina Cross, 24, shows off her new Berkeley apartment on Tuesday Oct. 18, 2011, in a building built exclusively for homeless youth. Cross is one of 15 residents who will receive subsidized rents and counseling for issues such as mental health, education, employment and finances. The building received about 200 applications for 15 studio apartments. (Doug Oakley/Staff)

Christina Cross, 24, shows off her new Berkeley apartment on Tuesday Oct. 18, 2011, in a building built exclusively for homeless youth. Cross is one of 15 residents who will receive subsidized rents and counseling for issues such as mental health, education, employment and finances. The building received about 200 applications for 15 studio apartments. (Doug Oakley/Staff)

Cross is one of 15 formerly homeless young people who landed a studio apartment in a new Berkeley building built exclusively for homeless youth, the first of its kind in the city.

“I’m so grateful to have a place like this,” she said Tuesday, fighting back a sob, during the grand opening of the building.

The $6.5 million building has a live-in manager and a services coordinator to help with employment, mental health counseling, personal finance and self sufficiency.

About 200 homeless youth applied for the 15 spots, said Susan Friedland, executive director of Affordable Housing Associates, which developed the project.

Ten of the units in the building are set aside for residents who have a severe mental illness or emotional disturbance, Friedland said. Most of the young people living in the apartments are former foster kids who are released into the world at age 18 and are unprepared for living on their own. They typically suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, among others illnesses, she said.

“We’re really excited about this because there is such a need and such a high percentage of emancipated foster youth end up homeless or in jail,” Friedland said.

Those who land a spot in the building, like Cross, have to be relatively stable and committed to getting their lives in order, Friedland said.

Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, with about a dozen other city and county politicians, was on hand for the opening.

“This will be a wonderful transition for kids so that they can have a safe place to live and get their lives together,” Bates said.

The building, on Sacramento Street near the corner of Alcatraz Avenue, was financed mostly by federal stimulus money with contributions from Berkeley, Alameda County and the state of California, Friedland said. Services provided to the residents are paid for through their rents and through Alameda County, she said.

The building opens at a difficult time for the approximately 225 homeless youth in Berkeley. The city’s only shelter for homeless youth, called Youth, Engagement, Advocacy and Housing, is cutting its number of overnight beds from 30 to 15 this year.

Berkeley City Councilman Darryl Moore, praised the opening of the building Monday, but said the city needs to do more.

“This shouldn’t be the first,” Moore said. “We need to have a grand opening like this every other week, because the need is so great.”

Around 5:35 p.m., CHP officers responded to a report of the incident in westbound I-580 lanes at Main Street. En route, officers learned a vehicle's driver said a person in another vehicle brandished a handgun and fired a shot.

In addition to evacuating 10 neighboring homes, deputies restricted pedestrian and vehicle traffic in the area while the sheriff's office bomb squad "safely disposed" of the explosives, officials said.